Regional infra projects get Neda-ICC nod

SOON up for President Duterte’s approval are seven infrastructure projects worth over P52 billion, six of which are aimed at boosting growth in the countryside.

At last week’s meeting of the National Economic and Development Authority’s (Neda) Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee (ICC-CabCom), regional projects were given priority. Only one Metro Manila-based project was given a go-ahead by economic managers.

In a statement, Neda said the ICC-CabCom last Sept. 28 approved the following projects: P21-billion Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) expansion; P10.5-billion Plaridel Bypass Toll Road project; P9.2-billion New Cebu International Container Port (NCICP) project; and P5.4-billion Malitubog-Maridagao Irrigation Project Stage 2 (MMIP-II).

Also granted ICC-CabCom approval were the P2.8-billion improvement of General Luis Road; P2.7-billion Chico River Pump Irrigation project; and the P601-million scaling-up of the Second Cordillera Highlands Agricultural Resources Management Project (CHARMP2).

“These projects will ensure the realization of the Duterte administration’s goals to reduce poverty and inequality by focusing on regional, rural, and agricultural development,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said.

Ultimately, it will be up to President Duterte, who chairs the Neda Board, if these seven projects would eventually be rolled out. The next Neda Board meeting has yet to be scheduled.

The biggest project in terms of cost is the expansion of the Department of Agriculture’s PRDP, under which an additional 206 farm-to-market roads, 24 market roads and bridges, 17 level-two potable water supply systems, five communal irrigation systems and two rural road bridges, on top of 65 other agricultural support infrastructure, would be built to supplement the ongoing nationwide program mostly benefiting big agricultural-producing provinces such as Davao del Norte, Iloilo, Isabela and Oriental Mindoro. The existing PRDP has a P27-billion funding from the World Bank.

The lone endorsed project in Metro Manila is the widening to four to six lanes of the 8.89-kilometer General Luis-Kaybiga-Polo-Novaliches Road, running from Quezon City to Valenzuela City.